again today he sat down with david gregory, of course, during that exclusive interview on "meet the press" and urged republicans to act saying that it appears all they are interested in is protecting taxes for wealthy americans. republicans, by the way, lashed out at those comments saying the president seems more interested in placing blame instead of actually leading, but that at this point in time seems to be president obama's strategy to some extent, publicly pressuring republicans to act and to move on these negotiations. so that is where this stands right now. the white house monitoring everything that's going on the hill quite closely, but i can tell you, melissa, that there is a sense of optimism that is waning here at the white house. you can sense that when you talk to the officials here. >> well, the eternal optimist. vice president joe biden apparently dropped by the white house today. do you know if he and the president have spoken? >> reporter: well, he is here at the white house so he is, of course, a big part of these negotiations going on behind the scenes, and the white h